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Ms. Davids is like Haliburton. Where ever there is a mess you find her fanning the flames. Gossip = news. 2 sources (unconfirmed) = a “news” worthy story. Media Bullpen, what’s your rating of GothamSchools? Ms. Davids, good job getting PAs added to Charter Law. Those are working so well at traditional public schools.

Where are the solutions! Loudest person with juiciest gossip gets the prize!

Ay — I don’t do Twitter — what are these “reactors” saying?!

Does anyone believe this story put out by the charter school. Their enrollment is the same as last year. https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2010/70/AOR-2010-331400860865.pdf. You can see their enrollment pattern here. Why would they possible expect to grow. Enrollment was not “down” as the spokesperson claims. Perhaps they can save money by not having a “spokesperson”

OK already Gotham Schools you and your cronies have become the ENQUIRER of real school news …been following this schools bashing and misinformation campaign from what it appears to be a small group of anti WCHS fanatics who have enlisted gotham schools in their campaign

Have you been to this building? Have you seen the students hard at work and the teachers and staff? Have you seen the magnificent design and vsision in this place? The environment that has been created in a poor under represented neighborhood with crap for facilities? Great ideas and change require great pain and struggle and yes this place has struggled but go to the bodegas and the beauty parlors walk the streets of this neighborhood talk to the people of this community and ask them…gotham and ms davies this place is the saving grace for hundreds of families of color who have no opportunities for their children whose children wind up with no schools after choosing out of 12 in the citys crazy lottery system how about gotham see how it can help this community of a thousand strong with hundreds of families at stake that cant send their kids to long island schools to get even a slither of the education their kids are
getting here

enough already how about you report on the over 100 students with special needs at his school that no one else wants and the incredible job those teachers and students are doing better yet why dont you report on how democracy prep skims for their special ed students or how harlem childrens zones board wont allow replacement students when there is a vacancy to protect their integrity

oh right…WCHS has no fat cat wall street hedge fund backing i forget this has all been a small group of committed lifelong community people trying to do the right thing for their young people right no fancy foundations have come to their rescue here just pure reslience and wave after wave of detractors i detect a bit of institutional racism from all you elitist at gotham and co….

Get the story right get some real reporters get some real facts that a building , a community jewle like this even happened is miraculous you guys should be ashamed

The only people these false reporters and enquirer wanna bees (cause let me tell you the enquirer is looking better and better after i see what gotham s agenda really is ) and gossip mongers are helping with all this trash are the charter detractors and haters

The losers all the magnificent staff teachers leaders administrators at believe and co busting their humps on a daily basis to make it happen for students gotham doesnt give a crap about as a matter of fact no one gives a crap about like the scores of students who have fled gang infested unsafe schools like grover clevland and murray bergtraum

The losers all the students making their way daily to this little bit of light on varet street with hope for their future trying to get a decent high school edcuation in a system that has failed them over and over

Go Gotham…..your priorities are RIGHT ON!

The reality is this school (well, the leader(s) of the school — it’s certainly not the kids’ or the teachers’ fault) has done enough to make it’s own enemies. They have a nasty habit of firing teachers without appropriate cause, and that violates a delicate trust that charter school teachers put in their administrators. When you bust your hump for the kids and the school, only to be told that you won’t have a job in January, it’s pretty easy to be pissed off (and stay that way).

Not to mention, there have been a litany of other mismanagement issues that have come up over the years that have demonstrated the major issues at the top.

There are charter schools that are successful, and those that are not — and there are PLENTY of issues to talk about surrounding the ones that are “successful” as well, which you accurately point out — but unfortunately, this school is simply not run well enough, and the children and teachers suffer. Be it lack of job security, moving buildings at the last minute, poor parent communication, starting the school year three weeks late, or having to walk a half mile to get to art class, these are frustrations with which students (and parents / teachers) should not have to deal, and this educational community is regularly harmed as a result. If this was the ONLY issue at the Believe Network, I’m sure people would be talking about it differently.

Not surprised. This school was engaging in tactics such as use money to attract students. I know when I went to school my parents choose schools that ACTUALLY had a solid academics opposed to getting $100 for RECRUITMENT efforts. We need true transparency!!! It not fair to the actually charters or district schools that are ACTUALLY teaching students and growing them into bright pupils. RGA, ENYP,have failed their students. It’s a shame that parents are not seeing the big picture and put pressure on the school’s adminstration before its too late. When will these big entities of charters such as BELIEVE will put the needs of the children first. This is not the land of make believe, this is the generation that will take the reigns after our generation and they deserve EVERY fight chance to become the best they can be! Education is the key!!!!!!

Really People,

I’ll start with the final part of your comment: my solution is 1) the full time teaching and service I have performed for the children of NYC over 14 years, and 2) my efforts to inform people about the destructiveness of corporate education reform, and in particular the dangers of charter schools as a policy response to the (many) shortcomings of education in the US.

Back to the beginning: how are articles from the Washington Post and New York Times not “news” sources? The Post item was Valerie Strauss reporting on Leonie Haimson’s work that shows that charter schools do not enroll the same populations as local public schools.

Both Times pieces were news reports on the changing demographics (after all, that’s what gentrification is, no?), based on US census data, of Harlem and Willamsburg.

The SRI link was to a report funded by the Hewlett Packard Foundation about KIPP schools in the Bay Area. This report was largely sympathetic to KIPP, but it nevertheless contained devastating data about student attrition – attrition that is not compensated for by new enrollees – that calls into question that corporate chain’s claims of success.

The final Times article about deteriorating maintainance in NYC public housing was to document the disinvestment in housing for the poor that is pandemic in the US, and that is tied to the (anything but “natural” and “organic”) increasing income inequalities and decreasing diversity in cities like New York.

As for my claims about charter schools being connected to gentrification and displacement of poor and working class communities, that was a general statement that was not directed at the Believe charter school per se. Nevertheless, what do charter managers intend to do as the neighborhoods they inhabit rapidly gentrify? Correlation may not be causation, but it certainly is interesting that these schools are proliferating while the neighborhoods they inhabit get progressively whiter, as does the teaching force.

You have the typical charter supporter’s chutzpah of talking about the independence of charters and the corporatization of the DOE, while somehow ignoring the fact that both are the result of Bloomberg policies. How can you seriously criticize anything done by the patron of your precious charter schools? The corporatization of the public schools is inseparable from the proliferation of charters, being done to undermine the former and subsidize the latter.

As for my “liberal” nonsense, I wish liberals felt as I did. One of the dillemmas facing supporters of public education is that too many self-identified liberals are mainlining the ed deform kool-aid, and accepting the Big Lie that teachers are the source of so many social problems, and must be subject to the same managerial (by managers with little or no experience in the field, yet) domination.

Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, it was David Halberstam who showed us how the “Best and the Brightest” can often lead the country off a cliff.

You are simply misdirecting your anger at one charter school in this story. Not helping. That’s it. If it’s kids and families you claim to care about you then don’t hurt them by adding fuel to the fire by posting on here. Keep teaching, run for office, read lots of newspapers but don’t attack specific charter schools because they consist of teachers, students and families. Pretend they don’t but they do. Best thing you did here was take back your accusation against this school. If you are in fact a teacher than you know that charters are no more “corporate” than traditional public schools. You’d likely demonize the school for using “doe space” so they try something everyone is demanding they do and still you shout. Is it possible that this school is not data hungry, not tied to any hedge fund, not making staff work obscene hours, not making any profit, answering to a board made up of community members and parents? What about that fits your precious definition of corporatization? It doesn’t work. My cause is neither charter nor unionized public. I think that is the difference. My cause is the people who are trampled on by this neverending debate. I am angered by the carelessness with which actual people are demonized and affected by the stereotyping both sides are guilty of.

Really People,

My “anger” has never been directed at this particular school, for as you well know I was addressing the general issue regarding charters from my first comment, one that deserves more attention.

As for the qualities you claim for Believe, I’ll grant you every one of them and still contend that 1) they does not override the public policy issue regarding charters, and 2) independent mom-and-pop charters are being used as a Trojan Horse to undermine the public schools, and when have served their purpose, they too will be closed or absorbed by the chains, based on either budgetary or pedagogical reasons. They won’t be able to withstand the inevitable pressures to scale up, merge or disappear.

The business model that allowed them to come into existence about will be the same one that consumes them.

“their behavior” there in black and white.

This stirng of comments should not become a debate over the relative worthiness benefits of the charter school movement as it detracts from the disaster that this network is, and has been since the day the school opened 7 years ago. One man’s “bold vision” may appear on its surface as “noble” and visionary” in the form of a 10 million dollar building that they had no business ever trying to move into. How many jobs have been lost becasue of the decision to move into a building that was beyond the means of WCHS form the onset. How about 17 teachers being fired mid-day, mid-year, only a few months into the school year after the school could not make payroll…is that responsible…is that visionary…how about the kids whose education was comprimised when school opened close to a month later than evcery other student in the state of new york. Tell those kids who missed a months’ worth of curriculum and who graduation is now in jeopardy because of the blatant fiscal mismanagement on the part of the Believe network. Take a look at the salaries that the administration and CEO of the believe network are paying themselves despite their financial crisis which has nprevented them from paying rent. Here’s and idea…instead of firing teachers and not making you rent payments…how about cutting some of your six figure salaries for you and your chronies. What a joke this place is.

its not fair! every new school has problems you have to give it time to be good! i’m a junior in this school and i don’t think it should be closed or sold!! i love this school!

So sad to hear that a school can’t pay rent. I think there’s really something wrong with the economy and the government. Why can’t we help this school pay it’s rent! They should really be given a chance!

Like the Wizard of Oz, Eddie Calderon-Melendez, Believe Schools Network founder and CEO, hides behind his curtain, pulling levers at random, and governing by fear. He has created a climate of uncertainty and a culture of mistrust, which have pervaded these schools and have negatively impacted student learning.

Former Teacher,

You ask us to separate the charter debate from problems that you say are rampant at this school.

But it is precisely issues like these – high student, teacher and administrative attrition, mismanagement, unlawful behavior, and more – that go straight to the heart of the charter debate. They are inseparable.